FIG. 1 shows a conventional system for the voltage supply of aircraft cabin modules.
A cabin server (CMS: Cabin Management Server) is serially connected via two lines to a plurality of decoding/coding units (DEU), within an aircraft cabin of an aircraft. A plurality of aircraft cabin modules is connected to each decoding/coding unit DEU. The aircraft cabin modules may, for example, be a passenger supply unit (PSU: Passenger Supply Unit) or a cabin illumination unit (IBU: Illumination Ballast Unit). As can be seen from FIG. 1, four passenger supply units (PSUs) and four cabin illumination units (IBUs) are connected to each decoding/coding unit. The passenger cabin modules are connected via cable and plug connections.
Each cable contains six separate lines, namely two data lines for transmitting data, one voltage supply line for transmitting an alternating voltage, an earth line for the alternating voltage, a direct voltage supply line and a direct voltage supply earth line. While the data lines are connected to the decoding/coding unit of the CIDS data bus (CIDS: Cabin Intercommunication Data System), the supply voltage lines are connected to a current supply network of the aircraft.
As can be seen from FIG. 1, the cabling of the data lines and the voltage supply lines are separate in the conventional system, with different connection plugs also being used for the data lines and the voltage supply lines. The conventional system shown in FIG. 1 has the drawback that because of the large number of laid data and voltage supply lines, the cabling is very complex, in particular in large passenger aircraft. Not only the high number of various lines, but also the different plug connectors for the data and voltage supply lines make assembly more difficult.
Because of the high number of laid lines, the weight is increased substantially, in particular in large passenger aircraft. This, in turn, leads to an increased fuel consumption during running operation of the aircraft.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide aircraft cabin modules which can be connected by cable with a minimum outlay.